selves in an Apollo 13 situation becausewe had to make the best with the little wehad around us. Some investments came,and others were cut due to situations out-side of control, so we had to make $1 looklike $3 with our efforts.”ITW Welding’s agency — yes, it’s stillDes Moines, Iowa-based Two Rivers Mar-keting, even after that first meeting —has been crucial to those efforts. “I giveOlsen — and especially Drew Jones andlater Tony Lieb, their two key creativedirectors there,” Thompson says. “I stillremember the campaign planning sessionin fall 2012 with them. I’m sure it was abit of shock. I applaud both their patiencewith me and their embracing of the cam-paign and adding their creativity to makethis campaign come to life the way it didand help it make it as effective as it is.”Thompson celebrates his team’s suc-cess — and says external recognition wasthe “ultimate nod” to the group’s effortsin the “We Build” campaign.

“Winning of the 2015 North American EFFIE Award for marketing effectiveness in the agriculture/construction/
building category — a first for ITW
Welding, as well as ITW overall — and
Silver American Marketing Award for Integrated National Campaign was fantastic
recognition for us,” he says.

Defining Moments: “The first was anexecutive vice president and generalmanager named Joe Sesnovich at RolfC. Hagen USA Corp. taking a chance ona then-24-year-old that wanted to getinto product design and marketing in thepet industry with no experience. I askedhim after he offered me the job, ‘Sowhat is this job exactly?’ He answered,‘Well, I haven’t quite figured that outyet, but I have feeling I’m going to needyou here for something big.’ I cut myteeth there on product design, launch,and marketing. Second, it was the call Ireceived from Christa Kaiser at DuPontto join their Teflon team. She gave methe room to introduce new forms ofdirect response marketing to their mixand prove its effectiveness. These twoevents and people forever changed myprofessional career and life and helpedmake me the businessperson I amtoday.”

Greatest Career Accomplishment:
“That’s still being defined. Certainly,
there are points of light, yet the
continuous definition can and will only
be found in those I work with on the
teams I am part of and lead. It can’t be
measured in one moment, but rather
in the many opportunities I can both
share my experiences with others and
learn from the talented individuals I am
surrounded with each and every day.”
RICH THOMPSON Vice President of Marketing, North America, ITW Welding, Appleton, Wis.